The Pagan Background of Early Christianity

by W.R. Halliday

A series of ten lectures delivered on behalf of the Liverpool Board of Biblical Studies. The author’s aim in this collection is to paint a picture of the general character of pagan society and pagan thought during the early centuries of the Christian era. Includes the following lectures: introductory; administration, municipalities, guilds; communications; society and social ethics; eastern and western elements in Greco-Roman civilization; decline of rationalism; union with God and the immortality of the soul; mystery religions; Mithraism; similarity of Christian and pagan ritual.